"Every planet has its own weird customs. About a year before we met, I spent six weeks on a moon where the principal form of recreation was juggling geese. My hand to God. Baby geese - goslings! They were juggled."

Monday, September 20, 2010

First PC post

This is my first Peace Corps post, despite the fact I have been applying since June of 2010. The lack of communication and updates has finally driven me to write about it, maybe to see if anyone else went through the same thing.

So right before I left Alaska, I unceremoniously launched my completed medical and dental forms into the custody of the USPS (with tracking, obviously). What I shouldn't have paid extra for was Priority shipping. It started the journey on 1 September, and didn't reach Washington D.C. until 11 September. And then it did some pretty strange things. The package was redirected. My medical representative said that's normal, as all packages arriving to federal facility need to get through security clearance, and she would expect it to arrive within the week. That was the 13th and it's now the 20th.

So just now I tried emailing my medical representative, and got an immediate reply that she is "no longer with the Peace Corps Office of Medical Services," and supplied another email address. Fantastic. All those blogs I've read about these situations are actually coming true for me. So I called the office and left a message (seems a message box is the only option), and emailed the address my former representative sent me.

I'd really like to know what's going on.

EDIT: I got a reply from the person at the new email address saying they got both my phone message and email (...well, I was eager), and that again it takes awhile for packages to pass anthrax screening. It still seems way longer than normal, but she also said to contact them again if the status doesn't change by the end of the month.